Chapter 70 - 70

Historically, Mussolini only launched the march to Rome in 1922. Mainz did not expect that because of the butterfly effect caused by his own crossing, this event would be enough Two years ahead of schedule!

It can be seen from Mussolini's founding of the fascist party that he was a very fanatical nationalist. Such people are generally very keen on war and foreign expansion, so from a long-term perspective, Mussolini Lini's coming to power was actually not good news for the German army.

But judging from the current situation, when Mussolini instigates the army to start marching towards Rome, there will definitely be a period of turmoil within Italy. During this period, it is unlikely that Italy will We continue to send troops to attack Odili, so the security situation in the southern region has been greatly eased!

This is also true. When the Italians, who were exhausted by Model's harassment, found that their homeland was in chaos and various factions were fighting for power, few of them were still there. Remember they were trapped at the foot of the snow-capped mountains in the north eating ashes!

After waiting for almost half a month for reinforcements but no one came to help them, the Italian army was desperate. They had run out of ammunition and food. Domestic reinforcements were delayed and could not be seen at all. The possibility of reinforcements coming.

If the previous Italian government had not collapsed, then the government might have been able to organize domestic troops to go north to assist them. However, at this time, the domestic government was already in a hurry due to domestic civil unrest, and they could hardly even maintain their own political power. , how could they send troops to rescue this trapped Italian army?

After understanding this, the commander of the Italian army trapped at the foot of the Alps gritted his teeth and made a decision: Surrender to the German army!

On November 4, 1919, the desperate Italian army formally surrendered to the German army.

After signing the surrender agreement, the Italian commander handed over his weapon, and the Italian soldiers also took off their weapons one after another, raised their hands above their heads, and walked to the area designated by the German army with their weapons held high. He honestly put the weapon in his hand on the ground, and then was driven into a prisoner-of-war camp by the German army with his head downcast.

Being in a prisoner-of-war camp, the Italians not only didn't seem scared, but actually breathed a sigh of relief. Each one of them was freed from the previous state of fear. This was a good thing for them. , at least in the prison camp, they had food to eat!

The Italian commander looked at the cheers of the German soldiers and felt very bitter in his heart. He had always thought that the German army had at least 150,000 troops, but the German army that appeared in front of him was only 10,000 in full force, which made him a little unbelievable.

Could it be said that there were only a few enemies who had blocked his army of 100,000 men and forced him to surrender?

How is this possible?

"I want to meet your commander!"

Because he was very puzzled about this matter, he made a request. He wanted to see the commander who commanded this German army to see what kind of guy blocked him. Of course, he also wanted to see what kind of guy he was. who accepted his own surrender

"Your Excellency, Commander, standing opposite you is our Commander!"

The messenger's face was livid and he was not polite at all, because General Model stood opposite this guy and accepted his surrender. As a result, this guy didn't know that he was the German general!

"This, how is this possible? You're not joking, are you?"

Commander Itali was shocked when he heard this, as if he had discovered something terrible!

"What's wrong? Commander, is there any problem?"

Model sneered and was dissatisfied with the other party's reaction because he saw contempt in the other party's eyes. This contempt was revealed when the other party saw his military rank before!

"No, no, no, your Excellency, you have misunderstood.

As for you personally, I have absolutely no malice or disrespect.

It's just that I didn't expect that the person who commanded this army to defeat us was actually such a young general, and your military rank You are only a lieutenant.

I don't know what this means in your army, but in our country, a lieutenant can only be a company commander at most, so I didn't recognize you as the commander of this army at first.

Please forgive me.

How offending!

"

The Italian commander is right. The rank of lieutenant can only be regarded as a middle- and lower-level officer in various countries. Generally speaking, lieutenant is the rank corresponding to the platoon leader and deputy company commander in the army. Some are also company commanders. However, there are relatively few company commanders with the rank of lieutenant. Generally speaking, a captain is a company commander, and a major is an officer at the battalion commander level!

The commander of this Italian army is a lieutenant general level general. He felt that, Even if the German army on the opposite side is smaller than his own, there are still 10,000 people, so at least there is a major general or a brigadier general

, right? The truth is far from what he thought. The opponent's general is actually a lieutenant, which makes the lieutenant general It feels unexpected, truly unexpected!

"We are different from you. Our Wehrmacht was streamlined from the 5 million troops of the Second Reich, so almost all of the army is elite. A force of 100,000 people. How many generals do you think we can have, but concentration is the essence? , although we are small in size, our combat effectiveness is very strong. I believe your army has seen this!"

Model actually doesn't care much about his lieutenant rank. Only by meritorious service can he be promoted. Before this battle, he had no chance to make meritorious service, and his military rank would not be promoted. But after this battle, he immediately After making such a big contribution, he still needs to be promoted to one or two levels, maybe to the rank of major.

Although the rank of major is not high, the size of the German army is limited at this time, and almost all of them are elites. Under such circumstances, the rank of major, which was not very important before, became extremely valuable.

After hearing Model's words, the Italian commander suddenly realized that this was the case!

"I understand, we were completely convinced by the defeat without any complaints!"

Model didn't bother to care whether the Italians had any complaints. After supervising the surrender of 100,000 Italian troops, the German army received 80,000 rifles, 100 machine guns, 50 cannons, in addition to 200 submachine guns, 500 sniper rifles and 3 million rounds of ammunition and 100,000 rounds of artillery shells!

Facts have proved that what the Italian army said about running out of ammunition was not true. All the ammunition in their hands was enough for them to fight a breakout, but the Italians were timid and afraid of death. , they just don't dare to fight. For them, since surrendering can save their lives, why should they risk their lives to fight?

Besides, if you surrender, you can eat steaming food immediately, but if you fight hard, you can only eat ashes. , in this case, you must choose to surrender!

Regarding the Italians' thoughts, Model can only express that such an army is quite good as an enemy, but as an ally, forget it!